Building Chord Progressions

Questions and Answers

How do you mix chord progressions and scales together?

I write good synth riffs but they are missing something. I think this is the root of the problem .

Posted by jared

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Chords are built from scales. Find the notes that are in the scales you're playing, then find chords that have only the notes from that scale.
A little more complexly, different chords, in relation to their key, are associated with 'modes'. The m7b5 chord(in C, this would be Bm7b5), for instance, is associated with the Locrian mode--try playing the Locrian mode over that chord and you'll have some interesting modal harmony, I'm sure.

What are some basic jazz chord progressions?

Posted by smiley754888

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A lot of jazz chords have added notes put into the chord and all are usually 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th chords. When trying to build a jazz chord, it helps to know what a blues scale is. The person before me (Renee) got the right notes but it is called a blues scale, not a pentatonic scale. A pentatonic is a major scale with the fourth and seventh omitted. So a C Pentatonic would be: C, D, E, G, A, C. A C Blues would be C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.